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David Ackroyd
| birth_place = Orange, New Jersey, U.S. | death_date = | spouse = Ruth Liming (1963–present) | children = Jessica Ackroyd Abigail Ackroyd | parents = Arthur Ackroyd Charlotte Henderson | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1969–present | website = }} David Ackroyd (born May 30, 1940) is an American actor, who first came to prominence in soap operas such as The Secret Storm and Another World. He was born in Orange, New Jersey, a suburb of Newark. Career David Ackroyd extended his all-stage career into film and television in the early 1970s, beginning with daytime leading man outings in The Secret Storm and Another World. He progressed to prime time work as Gary Ewing in Dallas until Ted Shackelford successfully took over the role when the character moved front and center with the spin-off drama Knots Landing, though Ackroyd himself would later appear on Knots Landing as a guest star, playing a different character. Coincidentally, Shackelford's last recurring role prior to Dallas was on Another World. David's prime on-camera work occurred in the late 1970s with a series of strong co-star roles in the miniseries The Dark Secret of Harvest Home as Nick Constantine; The Word and the TV-movies And I Alone Survived, Exo-Man and Women in White. He also costarred in the short-lived series AfterMASH and A Peaceable Kingdom. He began to find supporting roles in such movies as The Mountain Men, The Sound of Murder, Wrestling with God, Dark Angel and Xena: Warrior Princess. He also did the voice of John Cavanaugh/Prince Corran of Dar-Shan in the animated series Wildfire as well as several characters in The New Yogi Bear Show, The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest and The New Adventures of Captain Planet. On Broadway, Ackroyd appeared in Unlikely Heroes, a 1971 production of three plays based on the stories of Philip Roth; and Children of a Lesser God, in which he replaced John Rubinstein as the lead character, James Leeds, in 1981. Since the late 1990s and into the 2000s, Ackroyd has narrated documentary television series like History's Mysteries and UFO Files: "Alien Engineering". Ackroyd moved to Montana in 1996 and in 2003 co-founded Alpine Theatre Project in Whitefish, a professional acting company which has featured appearances by such notable performers as Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow and Kelli O'Hara. He is the company's Artistic Development Director. Filmography Actor * The Secret Storm (1971–1974) * Another World (1974–1977) * Kojak (1975) * Exo-Man (1977) * Lou Grant (1978) * The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978) * The Word (1978) * Dallas (1978) * The Word (1978) * ''And I Alone Survived (1978) * The Paper Chase, Season 1, Episode 5: "Voices of Silence" (1978)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Rj_lkjbV4 The Paper Chase, Season 1, Episode 5: "Voices of Silence" (YouTube)] * Women in White (1979) * Little Women (1979) * Mind Over Murder (1979) * The Yeagers (1980) * The Mountain Men (1980) * A Gun in the House (1981) * The Sound of Murder (1982) * Knots Landing (1982) * Trapper John, M.D. (1982) * McClain's Law (1982) * The Facts of Life (1982) * Cocaine: One Man's Seduction (1983) * Deadly Lessons (1983) * Dynasty (1983) * Whiz Kids (1983) * When Your Lover Leaves (1983) * AfterMASH (1983) * The Sky's No Limit (1984) * Hunter (1984) * Cover Up (1984) * Riptide (1984) * Hardcastle and McCormick (1985) * Picking Up the Pieces (1985) * St. Elsewhere (1985) * The Nativity (1986) * The Children of Times Square (1986) * Stark: Mirror Image (1986) * The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible (1986) * Wildfire (1986) * The A-Team (1986) * A Smoky Mountain Christmas (1986) * Nutcracker: Money, Madness and Murder (1987) * Tales from the Hollywood Hills: Natica Jackson (1987) * Cagney & Lacey (1985–1987) * Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (1987) * Hotel (1988) * Windmills of the Gods (1988) * MacGyver (1985–1988) * Memories of Me (1988) * Highway to Heaven (1988) * The New Yogi Bear Show (1988) * Studio 5-B (1989) * A Peaceable Kingdom (1989) * Wrestling with God (1990) * Dark Angel (1990) * History's Mysteries: Drake's Secret Voyage (1991) * Hell Hath No Fury (1991) * Stop at Nothing (1991) * Breaking the Silence (1992) * The Fear Inside (1992) * The Round Table (1992) * Dead On (1993) * Love, Cheat & Steal (1993) * The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993) * Murder, She Wrote (1986–1994) * Against the Wall (1994) * Fortune Hunter (1994) * Walker, Texas Ranger (1994) * The Cosby Mysteries (1995) * Xena: Warrior Princess (1996) * The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (1996) * No Strings Attached (1997) * Raven (1997) * Prison Life (2000) * Best Bar in America (2013) Self * In Search of History: The Heretic King (1998) * The Mysteries of Amelia Earhart (1998) * In Search of History: The First Americans (1998) * History's Mysteries: The First Detective (1999) * History's Mysteries: The Inquisition (1999) * History's Mysteries: Chain Gangs (2000) * History's Mysteries: Body Snatchers (2000) * Horror or Hoax (2000) * History's Mysteries: Ghost Plane of the Desert - Lady Be Good (2000) * History's Mysteries: Amityville -The Haunting (2000) * History's Mysteries: Vikings, Fury from the North (2001) * Meteors: Fire in the Sky (2005) * UFO Files: Alien Engineering (2006) * In Search of History: Dragons (2006) * The Universe (2007) Archive footage * Intimate Portrait (2002) References External links * Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:Male actors from New Jersey Category:American male soap opera actors Category:American male stage actors Category:American male television actors Category:American male voice actors Category:People from Orange, New Jersey Category:20th-century American male actors Category:21st-century American male actors Category:Yale School of Drama alumni